Game 7 – Exhilarating and Exhausting

Game 7s in championship series are the greatest things in sports. They are also the most exhausting things in sports.

This journey for the Giants started on September 29, exactly one month ago today. The Giants are about to play their 17th postseason game, matching the 2002 postseason for most games played in franchise history.

Road Warriors Killion and Schulman

For the reporters following them, by the time you get to the most exciting set-up in sports, you’re pretty fried. Wondering where the last month went.

The Chronicle’s Henry Schulman and I are the only writers from the newspaper who have been at every game. We have been in five cities (Pittsburgh, Washington DC, St. Louis, Kansas City and San Francisco). We’ve been on many, many flights, one long drive from Pittsburgh to D.C. , at endless Starbucks, various hotels, in late night restaurants and – at least in the state of Missouri – 3 o’clock bars. We’ve witnessed three champagne celebrations (four if you count the one on Sept. 25 when the Giants clinched the wild card spot). I can’t speak for Henry, but I’m ready for different clothes, no suitcase and healthier food.

This crazy journey started in Pittsburgh, where we watched the A’s lose a wild game to the Royals. The Giants were taking the game the next day, with Madison Bumgarner on the mound. That game started the chain of events that led the Giants to this: a Game 7 without Bumgarner on the mound.

“We are pretty disciplined on how we work our rotation,” Bruce Bochy said today. “We don’t deviate very often. Bum was going to have the first game and those other guys were going to pitch in order.”

And the order stayed, including through the Series. Bumgarner is available out of the bullpen, as he was in 2010. But he isn’t going to start Game 7. He was the one who launched the Giants on this journey.